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UGA student activities director leaving

University of Georgia Student Activities Director Ed Mirecki will leave the university for a job at the University of Washington Tacoma.

Mirecki is the second student activities administrator to leave UGA this year. Willie Banks, formerly director of the Tate Student Center and director of student life at UGA, is headed for a job as associate dean for student life at Ohio’s Cleveland State University.

Mirecki’s work at UGA ends next week.

“It’s not the best timing, but when an opportunity like this presents itself — they don’t come along very often. Personally and professionally, I couldn’t pass it up,” said Mirecki, who has a family connection in the Tacoma area.

Mirecki has been at UGA nearly seven years. As student activities director, he oversaw UGA’s Student Government Association, campus radio station WUOG-FM (90.5) and Pandora, the UGA yearbook, among other campus organizations.

When Mirecki heads to the University of Washington Tacoma next month, he will join a much smaller campus. UW Tacoma has about 4,000 students — a fraction of the size of UGA, one of the country’s largest universities with an enrollment of more than 34,000 students.

But Washington planners believe UW Tacoma could double its enrollment within four years, Mirecki said.

At the Washington school, Mirecki will be director of student involvement, overseeing not just clubs, student government and other groups, but also overseeing the college’s recreational sports program, he said.

“They are starting programs literally from scratch. Programs are expanding, and it’s going to be happening really rapidly. To be part of something brand new, that seems to be the next step in my career,” he said.